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Sometimes a movie or TV show is so moving and the subject matter so important, that you want to tell the world to watch. Netflix’s Unbelievable is the perfect example of this. Never before has a show stayed with me so long after watching.
The eight-episode limited series tells the incredible true story of a young woman who told the police she was raped. They told her she wasn’t. Two female detectives would enter the picture and help her put the pieces of her shattered life back together. The woman at the center of the story wishes to remain anonymous and will be referred to as Marie.
Marie endured cyclical trauma throughout her childhood and then, from a legal system that was supposed to protect her. At the time of her assault on August 11, 2008, Marie was in a pilot program for those aging out of foster care called Project Ladder.
The new program, which began the prior year and was designed to help foster children transition to living on their own, provided each member with subsidized housing. In her case, 18-year-old Marie lived in a one-bedroom apartment at the Alderbrooke Apartments in Lynnwood, Washington. This is where her attack occurred and it was in this apartment that she sat with her foster mother, Peggy Cunningham, and Wayne Nash, her case manager with Project Ladder, as she told two detectives what happened.
Unbelievable was inspired by The Marshall Project and ProPublica Pulitzer Prize-winning article, “An Unbelievable Story of Rape,” written by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong, and This American Life’s radio episode “Anatomy of Doubt.”
Marie Told The Truth From The Beginning
In a phone interview, Kaitlyn Dever discussed her experience portraying Marie. Her performance is breathtaking and left me thinking for weeks after watching. “What I knew from the very beginning is that Marie tells the truth. She was strong and brave for that.”
Dever never met the real Marie, or even saw a photograph of her. Her aim, she explained, was to respect her privacy. She researched sexual assault and the foster care system. This was during an interesting time in this country; the script landed in her email inbox just as the #MeToo movement was exploding. “I knew going into it, that it was a very relevant story. This type of abuse has been going on for years and years.”
Marie told police she’d been sexually assaulted by a masked intruder in her home. She was asked to retell her story multiple times and then forced to recant it altogether. Two of her former foster moms and the investigating detectives doubted her story after certain details changed. This wasn’t the first assault she’d suffered; her childhood, we come to learn, was laden with abuse. And, the investigation itself became an additional traumatic event in Marie’s life. In hindsight, it makes perfect sense that she was confused after this attack.
There was an on-set sexual assault advisor available to answer Dever’s many questions. “I wanted to be accurate and to understand. What the series does so beautifully is show that no one knows how anyone will ever react to the initial trauma, as well as retelling the story multiple times, or what it’s like post-assault. The police, in this case, made a series of mistakes, which made Marie shut down.”

She wanted to get a grasp on Marie’s life before and after the assault. “Knowing her upbringing definitely affected the way she reacted to this trauma,” says Dever. “The biggest thing I learned was that people react to trauma very differently. We need to start treating people singularly, not as one big group. This really stood out to me the most.”

Dever learned about Marie’s coping mechanism, an ability she’d used throughout her life, to flip an on-off switch in her brain. “This is something that just jumped out at me and was an example of her bravery and courage. It shows what she went through in her young life. She was overwhelmed and shut down after this attack and couldn’t remember certain details. Her childhood was a series of sexual assaults that she suffered over and over again. It’s heartbreaking.”

The switch was also detailed in Miller and Armstrong’s article as a mechanism Marie used the day she recanted her story to police. After what seemed like hours of questioning, Marie did what she always did when under stress: “she flipped the switch, as she called it, suppressing all the feelings she didn’t know what to do with.”

When preparing for the role, Dever thought about meeting Marie. “It definitely crossed my mind. As an actor, you’re rarely given the opportunity to play a person inspired by truth and the first thought I had was that I should meet her. What also went through my brain was just how extremely difficult the subject matter was. This story is so compelling and as I was going over it as a whole, I thought about how difficult this entire process must be for her; how she’s entrusting this entire team of people to tell her story. It’s such a privilege to not only us, but to the world so we can all learn from this story. I only wanted to give her space and respect.”

She spoke with the team, including show creators/executive producers Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich) and Sarah Timberman (Justified) and the ultimate decision was it wasn’t necessary for what they were trying to achieve. “I wanted to show her state of mind and her emotions, not so much her mannerisms, the way she walked or talked, so I focused on understanding what she went through and her journey.”

Dever had incredible source material to work with and read the original article and listened to the podcast several times. “I was able to get a good handle on what was going on in Marie’s head.”

She was emotional when asked if she’d heard any response from Marie on the show. Grant relayed Marie’s reaction after watching, which had been told to Armstrong. “Her reaction was incredible. She said it is perfect and she got closure from watching it. I was overwhelmed with a lot of feelings. My heart dropped. It brings me so much joy knowing she feels that way. It makes me so happy and that’s all I need at this point. I don’t need anything else.”

An Education Into How The Brain Processes Trauma

Grant and Timberman, in a separate phone interview, spoke about what an education this project was. “One thing we learned in our research is how the brain can react to trauma and how difficult it is for everyone,” Grant explained. “It’s entirely possible for the brain to scramble the information it takes in during a traumatic experience.”

Both made the point that if a detective were properly trained to understand this, they would know to question trauma victims in a certain way because memories can be fragmented and scattered after an assault. Often, memories come to light in stages over time. Instead of questioning a victim’s validity, they’d understand this as part of the process.

“Through this incredible trauma, Marie didn’t have access to some information. She remembered things in various ways. Everything was a bit scrambled. You take this with inadequately trained detectives and you have the perfect storm. It’s a recipe for disaster,” says Timberman. “The system has really failed victims but with the right training, there can be a different outcome.”

When Grant and Timberman were in post-production, the confirmation hearings of Justice Brett Kavanaugh were playing out in the news. “What was frustrating to hear was the basis on which Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford’s recollections were being rejected,” says Timberman. “We were learning so much about how commonplace it is for various memories to be lost. It was really obvious to us and completely to be expected.”
As for the real-life detective that failed Marie, Grant and Timberman clarify he’s not a malicious person. “At the time, he felt he was doing the right thing. He made a disastrous mistake,” says Grant.

They were more interested in showing this man’s moral reckoning. “We felt the portrayal of him as a villainous detective would not be accurate or compelling,” adds Timberman. “He found out the magnitude of what was the biggest mistake of his life and was utterly devastated and questioned whether or not he deserved to be a detective after this. This is a story of good people making terrible mistakes.”

When asked about the possibility of a second season, both Grant and Timberman simultaneously said that despite the rumors, the answer is a firm no. “It would be very hard to find another story that would rise to the same level and this one ended exactly the way we wanted it to.” They did say they’re working on more projects together.
Marie’s Guardian Angels

In the series, Detectives Grace Rasmussen (Toni Collette) and Karen Duvall (Merritt Wever) work in police precincts hundreds of miles away from where Marie was attacked. The two Colorado detectives partner up when they realize they’re investigating an eerily similar pair of intruder rapes. They intuit this is a serial rapist.

Their instincts proved correct and by January 2011, they’d connected four rapes over a 15-month period across Denver’s suburbs. Their lives would eventually intersect with Marie’s and she’d later refer to them as her guardian angels.

These characters are inspired by real-life investigators Stacy Galbraith (Wever’s role) and Edna Hendershot (Collette’s role). Grant and Timberman made it clear these are fictionalized versions and neither actress met with their real-life counterpart.

After they arrested the serial rapist, they learned he realized police departments often didn’t communicate, so he deliberately committed each rape in a different jurisdiction. The five other attacks– one in Washington, four in Colorado – all came after Marie.
One out of every six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape. Only 20% to 33% of rapes are reported to police. There are great organizations working with law enforcement to ensure perpetrators are caught, such as End Violence Against Women International and RAINN. The Debbie Smith Act has been imperative in creating the primary program to end the backlog of untested and unanalyzed DNA evidence (rape kit backlog), which was passed in 2004 and reauthorized in 2008 and 2014. This information is stored in the FBI’s national database CODIS, which now includes more than 10 million DNA profiles resulting in an increase in DNA matches and arrests.

Marie’s case led to positive changes. Detectives now receive additional training about rape victims. She sued the city and settled for $150,000 then left the state, got a commercial driver’s license and took a job as a long-haul trucker. She’s now married and has two children.